Plaited skirt with multiple plaited expansible waistband



April 29, 1969 M. J. DUXBURY 3,440,664

PLAITED SKIRT WITH MULTIPLE PLAITED EXPANSIBLE WAISTBAND Filed Nov. 4, 1966 INVENTOR MARGARET J DUXBURY ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,440,664 PLAITED SKIRT WITH MULTIPLE PLAITED EXPANSIBLE WAISTBAND Margaret J. Duxbury, 810 S. D St.,

Lake Worth, Fla. 33460 Filed Nov. 4, 1966, Ser. No. 592,004 Int. Cl. A41d 1/20 US. Cl. 2-221 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The skirt has an expansible waistband and lower skirt portion of expansible plaits. The waistband portion and the skirt has a plurality of vertically oriented plaits. At the waistband, there are securing means at each plait holding it permanent and solely at a fixed width only in the waistband portion. Incorporated with these waistband plaits are mutually separable connecting means such as snap fasteners which provide additional temporary plaits in the waistband and skirt. The permanent and solely held plaits at the waistband provide a plaited appearance at all times to the hanging portion of the skirt. The separable connected means such as snap fasteners may be connected to reduce the circumferential dimension of the waistband or disconnected to enlarge the circumferential dimension.

In the specific embodiment disclosed plaits are permanently sewn into the waistband only, so that there may be an unpressed plaited appearance below the waistband. In the waistband there are separable fasteners which may be connected or disconnected to vary the waist size of the garment. Of each mating pair of fasteners, one is on the permanent plait and the other is on the portion of the waistband which lies between the permanent plaits.

The garment is also provided with hoops or stays below the waistband which serve to maintain the hanging portion of the skirt in a circular shape in horizontal planes.

In the prior art, there are numerous skirts and other garments with waistbands of adjustable girth. Like the present invention, many of these prior art garments have a plurality of plaits which are temporarily held in place by snaps or other releasable fasteners. In the prior art apparel, however, the plaits are totally removed when the fasteners are separated, thus changing the overall appearance of the skirt.

It is known that during the early months of pregnancy, there is a period when the womans waist increases in size before there is any noticeable forward protrusion of the abdomen. Due to a natural reluctance to wear maternity garments at such an early stage of the pregnancy, it is common for a woman to improvise using her usual skirts, safety pins, strings and other makeshift devices. This is not only inconvenient but it results in the stretching of the womans conventional skirts which renders them unusable after the pregnancy.

The skirt of this invention is useful in these early months of pregnancy because it permits the gradual expansion of the waistband with the progress of the pregnancy. Due to the unpressed plaited appearance of the skirt, there is no pronounced change to the garment as it is expanded. And, the skirt of this invention is suitable for use later during the pregnancy due to its use of hoops or stays which maintain its lower portions in a generally symmetrical shape.

A particularly significant feature of this invention is that this skirt maintains a generally plaited appearance in the waistband area when it is at both its maximum and minimum sizes. For this reason, there is no marked Patented Apr. 29, 1969 change of appearance of the skirt as it is expanded with the progress of the pregnancy.

It is an object of this invention to provide a maternity garment in which the waistband area will maintain a series of plaits throughout a variety of adjusted sizes which will vary with either the size of the wearer or the stage of pregnancy of an expectant mother.

Another object is to provide means spaced below the plaited waistband which will tend to maintain the lower portions of the skirt in a shape which is generally circular in horizontal planes, so that it will disguise the forward expansion of the abdomen of the expectant mother. This means is a series of hoops or stays which encircle the entire skirt and are concealed beneath the outer fabric of the skirt.

Another object is to provide a maternity skirt which may be Worn from the very early months of a pregnancy during which the womans waist is expanding without a noticeable forward protrusion of the abdomen, and which may continue to be worn even during the later stages of the pregnancy.

A further object of the invention is to provide a maternity skirt which permits simple and convenient adjustment of the circumferential dimension of the waistband.

The satisfaction of these and other objects is achieved by the present invention, a single preferred embodiment of which is set forth in the following description and the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a portion of the waistband of the skirt;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a portion of the waistband of the skirt, adjusted to provide a minimum girth of the wearer;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but showing a partial expansion of the waistband;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of the skirt with its waistband partially expanded as in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the overall shape of the skirt; and

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line 6-6 in FIG. 5 showing the means for retaining the skirt hoops in place.

Referring to the drawings and especially to FIG. 5, it will be seen that the skirt 2 has a generally conventional appearance, with a waistband portion 4 from which depends a hanging skirt portion 6. A plurality of plaits extend from the entire waistband portion 4 into the hanging skirt portion 6. The left side seam 7 of the skirt remains open in the usual manner to permit the wearer to put on the garment.

The plaited appearance of the skirt is a result of the waistband construction illustrated in FIGS. l-4. In FIG. 1, portions of the six permanent plaits 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 are shown. Each of these plaits is defined permanently by its respective vertical line of stitching 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28, which, for the purpose of this specification are called plait securing means. For example, in FIG. 2, the plait 8 is permanently formed by the stitching at 20. All plaits extend from the waistband proper in a same direction which is shown as being from left to right.

It will be noted that each of the permanent plaits carries a snap fastener element 32a, 34a, 36a, 38a, 40a and 4211 which is adapted to be separably connected to a mating fastener element 32b, 34b, 36b, 38b, 40b and 42b, each of which is mounted on the waistband between the lines of stitching 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28. Other separable fasteners such as buttons, hooks and adhesive materials are also suited for this purpose.

From a comparison of FIG. 2 which shows all of the separable fasteners interconnected and FIG. 3 which shows the fastener elements 34a and 34b disconnected, it will be appreciated that the girth or circumference of the waistband may be increased merely by releasing some of the fasteners. The exact number of fasteners which must be separated in order to achieve a proper fit will vary with the waist size of the wearer.

During the earlier stages of a pregnancy, it will be necessary to release only a few of the fasteners 32, 34, 36, 38, 40 and 42. As the pregnancy progresses, the fasteners may be released as necessary for the comfort of the wearer and the pleasing appearance of the garment.

In FIGS. 3 and 4 it is apparent that the separation of the fastener elements 34a and 34b does not totally destroy the plaited appearance of the garment. The line of stitching 22 causes the plait 10 to remain in the waistband portion of the garment. The orientation of the plait will remain the same as before, i.e., from left to right. In the hanging portion of the skirt, there will be an unpressed plaited appearance vertically below the stitching 22, which will serve to disguise the womans pregnancy.

The location of the mating separable connecting means or fasteners is best illustrated in FIG. 3. The fastener member 34a which is on the permanent plait 10 is spaced from the plait securing means 22 by a distance designated a, which is a lesser distance than distance b between the plait securing means 22 and the fastener member 34b.

Although the dimensions of the elements of the skirt will vary from one garment to another, the vertical extent of the waistband and hence the length of each line of stitching 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28 will not exceed four inches. The permanent plaits 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 defined by the lines of stitching will be at least threeeighths of an inch in horizontal dimension. It has been found that the waistband portion of the skirt with its lines of stitching are best covered by a wide belt-like device such as a cummerbund.

Another feature of the present invention which cooperates with the waistband construction to disguise the pregnancy involves stays or hoops 44 which lie in tunnels or pockets 46 in the hanging portion of the skirt. FIG. 6 shows such tunnels 46 formed by lines of stitching 48 and 50 through the outer skirt material 52 and the facing material 54. The hoops may be made of any flexible and resilient material such as the plastics which frequently are used for such purposes. Three such hoops are used in the illustrated skirt, but more or less may be employed as desired. The uppermost hoop must be at least two and one-half inches beneath the waistband portion 4 of the skirt in order to maintain the desired unpressed plaited appearance.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the stays 44 extend entirely around the skirt and serve to maintain the hanging skirt portion 6 in a generally circular shape in horizontal planes.

From the foregoing description, it will be recognized that the presence of the stays 44 cooperates with the particular waistband construction to produce a skirt which is attractive and which ideally serves its purpose to make the pregnancy less obvious. FIG. shows the skirt with the plaited waistband 4 which produces the unpressed plaits which are pronounced above the upper stay 44 and which diminish in effect toward the lowermost stay.

The soft lines of the unpressed plaits will cooperate with the symmetrical shape produced by the stays 44 to produce the desired effect. This is true both when the waistband is adjusted to its minimum girth and when it is fully expanded.

Of course many modifications may be made to the described skirt within the scope of the invention. This invention is not limited only to the embodiment described and illustrated herein, but it extends to encompass the myriad variations which will occur to a person skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. A womans skirt having an adjustable waistband andbeing adapted for use as a maternity garment comprising, a waistband portion, a hanging skirt portion depending from the waistband portion, a plurality of vertically oriented plaits in said womans skirt, permanent plait securing means permanently holding said plaits at a fixed width only in said waistband portion, said permanent securing means being the sole means of holding said permanent pleats, mutually separable connecting means in the waistband portion to provide temporary plaits therein; whereby the plait securing means will cause the hanging portion of the skirt to have a plaited appearance at all times, and said separable connecting means may be selectively connected to reduce the circumferential dlmension of the waistband or disconnected to enlarge the circumferential dimension of the waistband, one of a mating said separable connecting means lying on one side of a said permanent plait and the other mating said separable connecting means lying at a point on said waistband portion intermediate a pair of said permanent plaits, the distance from the plait securing means to the separable connecting means on its respective said plait being less than the distance from the plait securing means to the separable connecting means at said point on the waistband portion.

2. A womans skirt according to claim 1 wherein the fixed width of said plaits as determined by said securing means is at least thrce-eights inch.

3. A womans skirt according to claim 2 wherein the vertical extent of said waistband portion is no more than four inches. 4. A womans skirt according to claim 1 having means 1n said hanging skirt portion to maintain said hanging skirt portion in a generally circular shape of fixed dimensions in horizontal planes.

5. A womans skirt according to claim 4 in which the means for maintaining said hanging skirt portion in circular shape is a circular hoop attached to said hanging skirt portion.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,635,249 4/1953 Summers et al 22l6 2,661,475 12/1953 Auslender 2-22l XR 2,668,292 2/1954 Alberts et al. 2221 XR H. HAMPTON HUNTER, Primary Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R. 

